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Some people are just hard to love. That's a fact. I know I have personally been hard to love on many occasions. We all have not acted with grace when we should have, we all have not been as sensitive to others feelings at times as we could have.
1 Corinthians 16:13-14 gives us the steps to being able to love the way we should. It teaches us the "how to" of loving the way God loves. But first we have to understand a premise: God IS love. Love is not a verb with God. It is not something He does, it is who He is. It is WHAT He is. So every action and every motive comes from love, because it is the nature and fiber of His being. His Word says that He loved us first. He gave His only Son - why? Because it was natural for Him to do.
So... going back to Corinthians... here are the steps to acting in love...
1. Be on Guard: We must guard our hearts and our minds against negative influence. We have to keep our minds clear of the voices in the world that would try to bring wrong attitudes and arguments. To guard means to protect. Your spirit and your mind are constantly being poured into from people and media - it comes from everywhere. What I'm getting at here is that without the Word of God and the Spirit of God implanted in those places - you can easily begin to adopt the attitudes of the world instead of the attitudes of Jesus. Be careful - the first step to love - is be careful what you allow into your Spirit.
2. Stand firm in the Faith: Not only must you be careful. You must be pro-active. Reading the Word of God daily. If God IS love, then reading His Word will begin to instill His nature of love in you. Talk to the Lord daily. I think we use the word prayer as if it is some mystical thing we do in a seance type atmosphere. There is nothing mystical or formulaic about it! Simply open your mouth and your heart and talk to Him like normal. Yes, we need to be reverent - but the Holy Spirit is our comforter and friend... meaning He wants to be talked to as not only Lord and Savior - but as friend. He wants to be your everything - not just one compartment of your life.
3. Be courageous, be strong: Why is this in here? How is this a step to love? We should not only be careful and be firm in the faith - but we need to be strong... in other words - we must not care about our pride when showing people the love of God. It takes "guts" to stand up and be there for someone, when no one else will. It takes courage to minister to someone who is hurting and in need when everyone else is ignoring them. It takes some moxy to quit worrying about your own issues and problems - eveyone has them... and be there for someone else... It takes strength to resist the temptation to always be the center of attention. It takes the courage of the Lord to be strong and do the right things in the right positive attitudes at the right time, for the right reasons, for the good of others, even when it may give you no personal reward other than in heaven.
Finally: 4. Do everything in love: This is all of verse 14 quoted exactly as is. I believe everything means everything. It means that if I have followed the instruction laid out here in the Word of God, I will do everything in love. Every response will be in love.
Notice it doesn't say do everything WITH love, it says do everything IN love. It's not referring to a verb here... it's not an action - it's an attitude. If you come from an attitude of gratitude - you will do everything in love. If you come from a place of being with Jesus... you will do everything in love.
The lost will be won, not with carefully planned services, or the best sermon, the most awesome graphics or the best light show. All of those things are important and are being used for the kingdom. But where the rubber meets the road, is in every member of the body of Christ doing everything they do - in love.
Everything means everything.
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perry meade
